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Pokemon TCG Pocket rarity guide: How it works & odds

Pokemon TCG Pocket banner

Rarity is king in Pokemon TCG Pocket and it’s important to understand its nuances, including how packs work and the odds of getting different types of cards.

Fans expected Pokemon TCG Pocket to be a massive hit, but it surpassed even those lofty expectations. Within days of its release, Pokemon TCG Pocket attracted millions of fans. The powerful combination of an F2P card game with the Pokemon brand and targeted microtransactions certainly helped those numbers along.

Plus, the dopamine rush of opening packs is a well-known phenomenon among veterans of the card game space. The rarer the finds, the better the bragging rights. However, rarity in Pokemon TCG Pocket does have seemingly small yet very important differences from its physical counterpart. 

How does rarity work in Pokemon TCG Pocket?

Players can see the rarity of a card via the symbols on the bottom left corner in Pokemon TCG Pocket.

RarityWhat to expectAverage drop rate per regular pack 
◊ Basic Pokemon and Trainers100%
◊ ◊ ◊ cards, Stronger Basic Pokemon, Stage 1 Evolutions, and Supporters95%
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ cards, Strongest Basic Pokemon, Stronger Stage 1 Evolutions, Stage 2 Evolutions25%
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ Pokemon EX Cards8%
Extended art of Basic Pokemon12%
☆☆Full art of Pokemon-EX and Supporters2.5%
☆☆☆Immersive Art Pokemon 1.1%
Gold Crown Art 0.2%

One-diamond cards are the bread and butter of most packs with the four-diamond cards, often regular Pokemon-EX, having special full-art cards. These extend the art beyond the frames, giving them a stellar 3D look. Meanwhile, each star rarity has art totally unique to it, with the Gold Crown being the rarest of all. 

Each pack is guaranteed at least three one-diamond cards. The fourth and fifth cards have a higher chance of being rarer cards, with two diamond cards being the most likely and Gold Crown being the least likely. As of this writing, there’s no real way to influence the rarity of cards besides just opening packs often.

Another way to obtain rare cards is through Wonder Picks, where players blindly pick from five shuffled cards. The costlier the wonder pick, the higher the quality of cards present. Check Wonder Picks every day, as the chances for a rare card acquisition are higher. This is also the ideal method for getting rental decks.

What are the rarest cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket?

The Gold Crown versions of Charizard EX, Pikachu EX, and Mewtwo EX are the rarest cards in the game.

Functionally, they are Pokemon-EX, but their art is the flashiest in a card game full of impressive cards. The Gold Crown cards feature full 3D animated models of the Pokemon with a golden spiral behind them.

The rarest cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket have roughly a 0.2% chance of appearing in a pack.

Written by Gab Hernandez X Twitter Logo

Gab Hernandez has a particular love for video games that give players control over the narrative direction, such as Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Disco Elysium. Gab spends just as much time playing games as they do gushing about them online to anyone who will listen. Their work has also been seen on TheGamer, Gfinity, and Wargamer, and you can follow them on Twitter / X at @HardlyWorkinGab.

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